This recipe for Khichri or Khichdi is a South Asian comfort food classic. I describe Khichri a savoury porridge with a risotto or congee like consistency. We make it couple a times a week for quick weekday lunches or dinners. This dish is equal parts rice & any lentil (or a combo of lentils), cooked with some spices, with an option of adding greens/vegetables to it. This is a one-pot meal that is vegetarian, vegan-friendly and gluten-free. Further Khichri uses not more than a handful of readily accessible pantry staple ingredients. So it makes for a nutritious, balanced dish hitting all the macros (carbs-fats-protiens). This is the real food you want to eat.
I like to serve Khichri with fresh yogurt, curried pickles, pappadam or a basic garden salad . A less spicier version without veggies is often even given to teething infants or individuals with upset tummies. This aids in swallowing and digestion. I can eat Khichri just like that without any accompaniments. After all warm Khichri feels so nourishing and comforting to eat just like eating a bowl of apple cinnamon oats on a cold rainy day.
In this recipe I use brown rice , moong dal, broccoli, carrots, peas and a Turkish chilli Pul Biber . (a coarsely ground pepper from Turkey tossed in oil and salt that I got my hands on from a recent trip to Turkey ). Other favourite vegetables include leafy greens such as Spinach, Chard or kale. But like I said you can play around with the vegetables and spices to to suit your preferences. See my recipe motes below.
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Recipe for Khichri is Ayurvedic
Without going into the intricacies of Ayurvedic cooking, I would say that “Khichri” is considered one of the best balanced meals in Ayurvedic food. For those unaware Ayurvedic cuisine is unique in it’s own way. It ensures cooking each dish in a way to achieve maximum digest-ability and flavour. Ayurveda combines foods in a way to not only achieve the best flavour but also provide healing benefits to the body. The incompatible food groups and recipes are beyond the scope of this post. But do know that this combination of rice, lentils, ghee, turmeric, cumin seeds and fresh veggies is one of the easiest and healthiest Ayurvedic recipes out there. And for those interested in Ayurveda and food combinations read all about it here in this detailed article.
Recipe for Khichri
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice (we prefer white or brown basmati – but any other long, medium or short grain rice works too)
- 1 cup lentils (we use yellow moong dal the most, but other variations work very well too – whole or split green moong dal, red lentils or even the lentil soup mixes from the super market)
- 1 tbsp ghee (vegan option is virgin unrefined coconut oil)
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1-2 medium green chilli chopped (or mild red chilli flakes)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt (or more as per taste)
- 1 pinch freshly ground pepper
- 2-3 medium garlic cloves smashed
- 1 thumb-size knob of ginger grated
- 1 cup Veggies of choice (you can add one or two of any staple veggies – baby spinach, chard leaves, kale, frozen green peas, carrots, french beans, zucchini, broccoli )
Instructions
- In a deep saucepan add in the rice and lentils. Add double the amount of hot water. Cook on a medium heat for about 20 min until the rice and lentils are mushy with a porridge like consistency. When they are cooking, if you notice the water dries up then add in some more hot water, give it a stir and continue cooking it. You want a thick risotto like consistency and the rice does leave adequate amount of starch so the mixture thickens well
- Once the rice-lentil mix is cooked and is a porridge/risotto style consistency, in a shallow pan add in the ghee (or coconut oil).
- Warm it and add cumin seeds, green chilli and garlic in that order. Ensure they temper on a low heat until the garlic starts to brown.At this stage add in the turmeric powder and black pepper. And if you are using ginger and raw veggies ( of choice) add them as well in the saucepan.
- Saute everything together for couple of minutes. Now transfer the cooked tempered spice-veggie mix into the rice-lentil porridge pan. Give everything a good stir, season with salt and add in some more hot water if the mixture has turned too thick.
- Heat everything in the pan. Garnish with coriander leaves (optional) . Then serve in bowls with yogurt(raita) , mint chutney , pappadam or pickles of choice.
Notes
Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions. And please share any easy stew/congee/porridge style recipes that you can. If you like this recipe, please do leave a rating below. Don’t forget to tag #urbanfoodlover and follow along on URBANFOODLOVER Instagram here for lots more foodie inspiration 🙂
